Chapter 2: Arcane Healer
Valens woke with a sudden jolt. He was sprawled over the ground awkwardly, the back of his head stinging from the tough ground, knees drawn up near his chest. There was hardly a place in his body that didn’t ache from hard use. There was no light. Nothing but the frequencies of the world that told him he was still alive.
Awareness stabbed at him. He remembered where he was now. He’d been in the cell, with the Void Sphere clutched tight in his hand, the last gift of--
Master!
He turned and twisted, scrunching his face up when a sudden stench stabbed at him. Rot and pus, his nose was full of the smell of them. Dark walls all around him. Stretching further away, jagged faces dripping wet.
No sight of his Master. He was gone, for good, and now Valens was alone in a dark cave.
He floundered to his feet. He blinked. Sounds dinned in his ears. Thousands of them. Their tunes carried a different feeling, almost joyful and free, not like the forbidden source suppressed with the rootmetal’s presence.
Life mana cuddled him, tight. Warm. Home. There, he could feel the wind. What was happening? Was the ritual a success? But this place looked disturbingly similar to a normal cave.
Pain lanced through his hands when he tried to move.
The handcuffs.
They were gone, and left behind them a smoldering pain.
Wincing, he reached to one of the gemstones stitched into his thigh, spreading the skin with the tip of his finger. Apathy took hold of his mind, muting the pain. He plucked one of the jewels, and raised it high to his eyes.
It took him a year’s pay to get a dozen of these jewels. Master Eldras thought they needed more of everything to be prepared against the unknown once the warping spell sent them off to that different world, where the truth of all things awaited.